Depression and eating disorders

[websurfpro]

Depression seems to be very related to eating dissorders, many people have trouble eating while going through depression, sometimes they eat too much sometimes they don`t eat at all. The question is what are the causes for this ? Antidepressants are known to give apetite, so many people eat more than they should, but what do we do if we don`t eat at all for 2 days just because we don`t feel hungry?

[LW75]

I recently wrote an article about why stressed/depressed people need to eat. I'm posting it below.

As for loss of appetite, I know that when I'm sufficiently upset I lose my appetite.

Over-eating, though, can be caused for the following reasons:



STRESS AND FOOD CRAVINGS -
WHY ITS SO DIFFICULT FOR OVERWEIGHT PEOPLE TO IGNORE THOSE CRAVINGS


It wasn't long ago that the cause of food cravings was believed to be rooted in emotional problems and in the overweight individual's practice of "looking for love in food". So-called weight-loss gurus would write books and give lectures, telling overweight people how they needed to look for love elsewhere in life and stop believing that food could fill their emotional
void.

Today science knows better. While, of course, there are overweight people who became overweight as a result of careless eating habits they learned early or lack of understanding of healthy eating habits, many, if not most, weight problems are not the result of having had parents who overfed their children or of ignorance. What may be the biggest (and often insurmountable) challenge to overweight people who want to lose weight is the fierce craving of foods high in carbohydrates and fats, and there is a reason those cravings can be impossible to ignore. It is now understood that food cravings occur as the result of the body's response to chronic stress, a response which differs from the response to acute stress. Acute stress is when there is an immediate perceived threat. Under acute stress the body responds with a stress response, but after the perceived threat has passed the body returns to normal. Chronic stress, as the term implies, refers to living under stress over a long period of time. Under chronic stress the body remains under a stress response, and since it essentially senses the need to be returned to a normal state it begins to crave foods that will (at least temporarily) reduce/end the high-stress response state. This is a process that is rooted in evolution. Its also one to which anyone who has ever felt better after eating a chocolate bar can attest.

Under chronic stress glucocorticoid levels remain elevated. This leads to maintaining high levels of hormones (corticotropin releasing factor, which then regulates adrenocorticotropin) which incite the stress response. Essentially, the stress response keeps itself going. Since the effects of this stress response are not positive effects Nature has built into the system a way to reduce/eliminate those negative effects. From an evolutionary standpoint, animals and people are designed to respond to what stress by eating high-energy foods in order to be ready for anything. From the standpoint of even the most evolved and overworked mother of a few children, not only has Nature built in the cravings that are difficult enough to ignore, but the practical need to keep going in spite of feeling bad can be what makes that stressed out mother choose a Danish for lunch over a salad.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, who identified a biochemical feedback system in rates which could explain the cause of food cravings in humans, suspect that the signal to inhibit the stress system may come directly from the fat deposits.

The Catch-22 of the obesity problem is that while chronic stress, itself, results in negative effectives on the health, the very eating that reduces those effects also leads to health problems. That middle-aged mother who needs to keep going not only has her own hormones driving those cravings but also has that practical need to be able to do what she needs to do for her family. Long-term stress and/or frustration is a common problem for many overweight people, and that stress is often more extreme than just having a long, daily, commute in traffic and a high mortgage payment. Stress comes in the form of worries over loved ones, financial worries, loss, overwork, illness, and any number of other sources. Trying to lose weight can actually produce a stress response, but for people who are concerned about their health and their extra weight so can having the weight itself.

Under long-term, chronic stress the adrenal gland (which is responsible for elevated cortisol levels in response to stress) can actually "run out of juices" and become fatigued. Adrenal fatigue is often misdiagnosed as depression. When adrenal fatigue occurs the individual no longer has that "boost" needed to deal with stress, and exhaustion results. Among other symptoms of adrenal fatigue are craving salt or sugar. In its extreme form adrenal fatigue is Addison's disease, but in the milder cases there is generally no treatment other than a proper diet with some restrictions (which include having no sugar) and rest. Here again, Nature drives sugar craving in its attempt better equip the body to deal with a bad situation.

The often seemingly hopeless problem of living with severe discomfort of a stress response that results in fierce food cravings versus giving the body what its telling the overweight person s/he needs may be what drives so many overweight people to gastric bypass surgery. Further, someone like a person with a low income and few prospects of increasing it may be under chronic stress in his/her thirties, having been under it that much longer in his/her forties as metabolism continues to slow. In other words, if removing the source of chronic stress is not possible (and often it isn't) the individual often finds that the situation gets worse instead of better.

There are ways to reduce the unhealthy condition of living constantly under stress, including baths, Yoga, meditation, sex, and possibly listening to some types of music.

In a world where so much emphasis is placed on educating people about health eating (under the presumption that most people need that education) understanding the very real challenge faced by many people with a weight problem may be the education that is most needed.

[websurfpro]

Wow1 Is this written by you? First I want to congratulate you for your writing skills , and the article is very interesting , it sure is usefull to everyone. keep up the good work

[surfville]

stress is relieved when you eat because it does calm your system and make you feel good. That is why most people who is overweight or underweight is stressed out.